Working on a Feeling
by Clara Barton
Summary: After the morning from hell, Relena and best friend Duo decide to ditch their afternoon classes and head for the beach, hoping for a turn in their fortunes. They get more than they even dreamed of.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Maeve suggested this idea and it was too big for the 31 Days of Smut. Duo and Relena fail a test, decide to blow off their day and drive to the beach where they encounter beach!Trowa. This also features one of the 31 Days of Smut prompts worked in, courtesy of AmberlyinViolet (I have way more than 31 prompts and this one was one of my favorites: 2x3xR with Trowa holding down Duo tickling him… and things).

A/N 2: I love reviews. I crave them. They make me smile and they make my fingers fly when I sit down to write. They introduce me to wonderful people who I become friends with and who give me all kinds of headcanons and ideas that will not go away until I sit down to write them (true story: Unexpected happened because of Luvsanime02; Entanglement because of Miss Murdered; countless one-shots from other amazing people). So, please, take the time to review.

A/N 3: I've got a bunch of ref images for this on my tumblr page "at" claraxbarton that you might want to check out.

A/N 4: Wake Forest, Duke, Davidson= great private schools in NC. Oak Island=lovely beach on the coast of NC. Davidson is about 20 minutes north of Charlotte, NC as a reference point.

A/N 5: Title from the lyrics of Peaches by In the Valley Below

Warnings: angst, smut, language

Pairings: 2x3xR

 _Working on a Feeling_

 _Don't worry your pretty little head_.

Relena didn't know how many times she had heard that in the last twenty-one years.

Too many.

When she was younger it hadn't really mattered. The words meant everything would be alright, that she had done something wrong but in the end, it didn't really matter because she was still pretty.

But Relena didn't want to be pretty, not _just_ pretty. She didn't just want to be her father's daughter, her mother's prize, perfect Heero Yuy's perfect girlfriend.

She wanted to be her own person, she wanted to succeed because she was strong and smart and _right_ and not just be the pretty girl.

She was tired of playing that role. So very, very tired of it and she wanted - she _needed_ \- to be free from it.

When she was fifteen she had had a similar epiphany, had gone out and had all of her hair chopped off and her parents had been horrified, her mother coping with the sight of her short-haired daughter only by upping her daily Valium. The stunt had garnered a scowl from her father, an admonishment to think about how she presented herself to others, a rebuke to not make her mother's life more difficult.

It had not been the desired effect.

So, she had realized, trying to make herself less pretty - at least in the eyes of her parents and peers - hadn't really solved the problem of Relena being seen as more than the pretty girl. It had, in fact, only exacerbated it by making it very painfully clear that when she failed at _that_ , at being pretty and presentable, then she definitely needed to worry her little head.

Which had been exactly what she did. She worried and worried and then she decided to fill her little head with everything she could and prove to everyone just how damn capable she was.

When it came time to apply to college, Relena had had her pick, and not just because of her family connections. In the end, she had snubbed Wake Forest, her mother's alma mater, and Duke, her father's, to choose Davidson. Her parents had been baffled, had actually been concerned when Relena announced that her intended major was Political Science.

Her mother had dreamed that Relena could one day be First Lady, but never the President. Her father, probably meaning well, had pointed out that the current first lady had the same degrees as her husband, had suggested that the best way for Relena to meet influential men was through that course of study, and then he had looked at Relena and nodded, as if congratulating her on the plan.

There seemed no way to get out of it. No way to escape their mentality and Relena _knew_ that her parents loved her and wanted the best for her, wanted her to be happy - but she also knew that they truly had no idea what made her happy, or what was best for her. To them she would always be the pretty girl with the little head who smiled when complimented on her dresses, who at the age of five had declared pink to be her favorite color and had been surrounded by it since, regardless of the fact that she was no longer five and that pink was no longer her favorite color.

 _Don't worry your pretty little head_.

She had heard those words too many times and when she had heard them this morning, when Professor Gaines had passed back their exam and she had seen the giant red letter F, had looked up with terror filled eyes, when her professor had patted her hand and offered _that_ as comfort, Relena had lost her proverbial shit.

She had packed up her bag, right there in the middle of class, had crumpled up the exam and forcefully thrown it into the trashcan at the front of the room and, fifteen pairs of wide eyes on her the entire time, stalked out of the classroom.

By the time she walked across campus to her car, Relena's thundering pulse had begun to calm, her tunnel vision receded, but her absolute fury with herself and the world around her had only slightly abated.

She was _done_. So completely done with everything.

Nothing mattered, it seemed - not the hours and hours of studying she had put in for that exam, not her entire high school and college academic career, not any of her interests, her goals. None of it mattered except the fact that she had a pretty little head that _apparently_ couldn't retain the knowledge to succeed in her chosen field.

Relena angrily dug into her purse for her keys, fingers fumbling over chap stick, tampons, change, a lighter, a scrap of paper with that asshole's phone number on it from the bar last weekend, her phone, her cigarette case, her wallet. But no keys.

With a frustrated growl, Relena upended her purse on the hood of her _pink_ convertible Mini Cooper.

No keys.

Relena felt angry tears prick her eyes. Where the _hell_ were her keys? Was she so completely fucking stupid that she had _lost_ them as well and -

And suddenly she remembered.

Duo.

They had both been in a rush that morning as they left the apartment, had had to resort to actually sharing the hair dryer but had both given up and forced their hair into sloppy braids before running out so that they could make it to class on time. Relena had parked the car in the only available spot, after ten minutes of driving around, across campus from _both_ of their classes and Duo had been sitting in the passenger seat, frantically trying to complete his lab project because his asshole of a lab partner had bailed on him _again_ and only bothered to text Duo fifteen minutes ago to let him know. So Relena had given him the keys, had told him good luck and kissed his cheek and taken off for her class and hoped he made it on time to his.

Which was fine. It was fine that Duo had the keys and fine that Relena found herself sitting on the hood of her car with no way to escape this hell for at least an hour, maybe even longer depending on whether or not Duo planned to meet with his advisor or go by the library or -

 _I need to get the fuck out of here_

She stared at the text on her phone, the words exactly how she felt, exactly what she needed.

But the text wasn't from her, it was _to_ her. From Duo.

 _Me too_

 _Meet you at the car?_

 _Yes_

Two minutes later, Relena saw the familiar form of her best friend stalking through the rows of expensive cars, shoulders hunched, hands shoved into his pockets, a fierce scowl on his face.

Relena could count on one hand the number of times she had seen Duo look so pissed.

They had known each other since childhood, since their first playground fight when Relena had kissed Heero Yuy on the lips and Duo had shoved her away and done the same, had stuck his tongue out at her and laughed until Heero pushed past both of them and went to climb on the monkey bars. After that, Relena and Duo had spent years competing for Heero's attention and affection, had triumphed and crowed at the other when Heero agreed to come to _their_ birthday party, had argued over whose Valentine he liked best, had physically fought each other for the privilege of sitting beside him in every class, every year. They had both taken up golf when they heard Heero say how much he loved it, they had both done everything in their individual power to make Heero Yuy fall in love with them and it hadn't been until eighth grade, when he invited _both_ of them to the spring dance and smirked when they fought each other, had laughed when they dumped fruit punch on each other's clothes, that they had realized.

Heero Yuy was an asshole and he was _so_ not worth either of their singular let alone combined efforts.

Duo and Relena had been best friends ever since and, in an ironic twist of fate that wasn't lost on either of them, had in turn been pursued by Heero for the next four years. And even though Relena's parents still thought she would end up with the boy next door one day, even though Duo's brother still teased him about the dream wedding he had planned for himself and Heero when he was nine, they had both moved on. Heero had been the childhood crush that brought them together but he was definitely not on either of their lists of potential boyfriends.

"Your lab partner?" Relena guessed when Duo was close enough to her that she could see the thin, compressed line of his lips was almost as pale as the skin around his mouth.

Duo shrugged and nodded at the same time.

"The asshole didn't even - " Duo huffed and shook his head. "Do you know what Dr. Jay said to me?" Duo cleared his throat and lowered his voice in a familiar imitation of his advisor, "It's a good thing you spend so much time jerking off, Maxwell. You're going to need that strength to hold a mop all day because the closest you're going to get to a top-level research lab is as a janitor."

Relena's jaw dropped as she stared at Duo, at his devastated expression.

Not only did Duo worship Dr. Jay, not only had Relena had to listen to Duo wax poetic about the man's seemingly endless accomplishments since Duo had met him during a campus tour when they were high school sophomores, but Duo had worked his ass off, even more so than Relena, to get here. Duo didn't have her money, didn't have her family name or connections and Relena knew what a coup it was to him, to his brother, when he had been accepted into Davidson. She also knew how passionate Duo was about becoming a biochemist.

"Duo -"

"Nah, it's fine. I mean, he's right, yanno? These forearms _are_ pretty impressive," Duo sneered as he pushed the sleeves of his sweater back as if to show off. He scowled and kicked at a rock in the parking lot.

They both watched it skitter down the row of cars, both winced when it bounced off the silver paint of a Mercedes.

"You sure you're good to ditch class?" Duo asked her, as if just remembering that they actually weren't supposed to be out in the parking lot.

Relena snorted.

"I'm sure I'm good to do whatever the hell I want."

Duo arched an eyebrow at her tone.

"I failed my test. And Gaines did that thing, that -"

"That 'this is seriously sexual harassment and needs to be reported to the Dean thing'?" Duo guessed.

Relena shrugged but under Duo's glare she nodded.

"Please tell me he didn't offer to help you review the material again."

Relena shook her head.

"No, not this time. Although - I don't know. Maybe he would have. I got up and walked out of class after he told me not to worry my pretty little head."

Duo scoffed, said something under his breath that made Relena's cheeks turn red but she nodded in fierce agreement.

Duo pulled her into a hug, holding her tightly until she relaxed against him.

"I mean, it's not even like you _have_ a little head," he said into her hair. "Your head is fucking huge."

Relena shoved him away but she was smiling.

He smirked back at her.

"Should we go waste an hour at Waterbean drinking stupidly overpriced coffee before our next classes?" Duo suggested.

Relena nodded.

"Yes. That sounds like a really, really good idea."

-o-

But as Relena sat staring into her nearly empty mug, even as the Chai Tea Latte warmed her and settled her, she realized that there was absolutely no way she was setting foot back on campus that day.

"I'll drop you off," she offered to Duo as he drained his Earl Gray tea - the same tea he ordered no matter how many times Relena or the cute barista that flirted with Duo every single time teased him about the fact that there were more than thirty types of tea on the menu and Duo never deviated from the simplest possible option.

He lifted an eyebrow.

"What about your public -"

Relena shook her head.

"I can't go back. Not today. I just - can't be on that campus today. I need to just… not think for a while."

Duo nodded in understanding.

"I, ah, don't feel all that excited to sit in Ecotoxicology… you want to go do something or do you want to be alone?"

Relena considered. She had thought to be alone, had thought to go back to their off-campus apartment and sit in her room and just stare at tumblr all day until she forgot what she even cared about anymore.

"Let's get out of here," she decided.

Duo lifted an eyebrow again.

"You wanna go to Charlotte?"

They could. They could drive the twenty minutes to the city and spend the afternoon at Southpark trying on outrageously priced clothes, pretending to be a newly engaged couple starting a registry at Tiffany's - it usually made Relena feel better, made Duo's smirk lose its bitter edge.

But not today. Today she wanted anything but a reminder of how easy it would be for her to do nothing with her life, how much she could still enjoy because of her family's money.

She shook her head.

"No. Not - I want to be away from all of this. Everything."

"You want to go to the mountains? We go to Asheville and meet up with some people, if you wanted."

Despite his appearance of being a burnout, Duo was anything but. It was Relena who kept meticulously rolled joints in her cigarette case, Relena who dragged Duo up to Asheville ever few months to hang out with their high school friends who had gone to the schools in the mountains and seemed to spend more time studying everything they could about the uses of marijuana than their ascribed college majors.

It was tempting. Getting out of here, spending time with people who would give her parents a stroke. And the mountains were nice, were away from the city and -

"Too cold," Relena said with a sigh. It was the end of February, and while the Davidson had gotten only a few flurries of snow, Asheville still had several inches on the ground from the last storm.

Duo smirked.

"Give me your keys."

Relena arched an eyebrow at him.

Duo rolled his eyes.

"Come on, you drive too slow and if we want to get there before the sun sets we need to get a move on."

What the hell, Relena decided and passed them over.

Duo grinned, stood up and offered her his arm.

Relena rolled her eyes but accepted the gesture, the same one he had used when escorting her out of her parents house for the senior prom, both of them struggling to keep straight faces in front of their horrified ones when Duo showed up wearing the same dress as Relena.

Once back in the car, Relena turned on the radio and then laid back and closed her eyes.

"Please tell me we aren't going up to Chapel Hill so you can stalk that lacrosse player," she murmured.

Duo snorted a laugh and she felt the car shift into high speed as he hit the interstate.

"Hell no. I'm done wasting my time on that asshole - he shows up once a month to get his dick sucked and doesn't even bother to call me on my birthday? Nah, we are _not_ going to Chapel Hill today. Not going anywhere near rich assholes with too much of Daddy's money and not enough ambition to do anything with their lives but remind me of how damn lucky I am to be in their presence.

Relena opened her eyes at that and looked over at the rigid line of Duo's jaw.

"Is this about Wufei again?"

Duo sneered and it was clear that it was.

Wufei Chang had been Duo's lab partner in no fewer than four classes, despite the fact that _both_ men had requested new partners every single class. The two had met their first day on campus, at a frat party and Wufei had gotten very, very drunk, had made out with Duo and then woken up the next morning with the hangover from hell, found himself sharing Duo's bed and had the freakout of all freakouts, according to Duo. Wufei was staight, had less than zero interest in men and he had spent ten minutes telling Duo exactly why _he_ was a pathetic excuse for a human before stalking out. When they met again on the first day of classes, when they were assigned to be lab partners for the first time, Duo had contemplated transferring. Wufei refused to work with Duo, doing all of the work himself and as a result _both_ of them turned in separate projects and separate lab work for every assignment. It meant Duo worked twice as hard as the rest of the students, doing his share of the work and Wufei's and even though Wufei was similarly burdened, his uncle was also the head of the department.

"You know he actually - last week he actually smiled at me?"

Duo shook his head.

"I really thought that maybe things - God, I am such a fucking idiot."

Duo ran his hand over his face and before Relena could say anything, he turned up the radio.

"Hey, our song," he said.

Relena listened. It was.

After a few seconds she heard Duo humming along. A few seconds later she found herself doing the same.

And then they were both singing at the top of their lungs.

"We won't live too long, so let's love for one song. The lion won't lay down, when the holy man's in town."

They smirked at each other.

"Breaking down the ceiling, digging up a deep end, freezing on the beaches, reaching for the sweetest, sweetest peaches."

-o-


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Maeve suggested this idea and it was too big for the 31 Days of Smut. Duo and Relena fail a test, decide to blow off their day and drive to the beach where they encounter beach!Trowa. This also features one of the 31 Days of Smut prompts worked in, courtesy of AmberlyinViolet (I have way more than 31 prompts and this one was one of my favorites: 2x3xR with Trowa holding down Duo tickling him… and things).

A/N 2: I love reviews. I crave them. They make me smile and they make my fingers fly when I sit down to write. They introduce me to wonderful people who I become friends with and who give me all kinds of headcanons and ideas that will not go away until I sit down to write them (true story: Unexpected happened because of Luvsanime02; Entanglement because of Miss Murdered; countless one-shots from other amazing people). So, please, take the time to review.

A/N 3: I've got a bunch of ref images for this on my tumblr page "at" claraxbarton that you might want to check out.

A/N 4: Wake Forest, Duke, Davidson= great private schools in NC. Oak Island=lovely beach on the coast of NC. Davidson is about 20 minutes north of Charlotte, NC as a reference point.

A/N 5: Title from the lyrics of Peaches by In the Valley Below

Warnings: angst, smut, language

Pairings: 2x3xR

 _Working on a Feeling_

"Wake up, princess."

Relena stretched as she opened her eyes.

She had no longer they had been driving, had no idea where they were even headed - she had stopped asking once they drove past Charlotte and had fallen asleep not long after.

She breathed in a deep breath and smiled as she sat up straight.

"Where are we?" She asked, looking at the sand dunes in front of her and the sea oats dancing in the wind.

"Oak Island. I figured we could revisit the setting of the best spring break ever."

Duo got out of the car and smirked at her.

Relena nodded in enthusiastic agreement.

They had come here last spring, booking a beach house for a week with Relena's then boyfriend Quatre and Duo's girlfriend Hilde. It had been an amazing time, partly because Relena and Duo had been mostly sober, unlike the year before and the break they spent in Cancun and partly because Duo and Relena had spent almost the entire break alone together, despite having their dates. Quatre had spent the entire time working on a research paper and Hilde had arrived with a broken ankle and, by her own very loud admission, could only take so much of Duo waiting around on her hand and foot. It had not been even a little surprising to Duo and Relena when, a month after both relationships had ended, Quatre and Hilde started dating.

Relena got out of the car and sighed.

It was cold, the wind and sand biting into her skin, but it was also perfect.

The sun was just starting to set, the blue sky bleeding into the orange and red light on the horizon.

"This is perfect," Relena told him.

Duo grinned and reached out his hand. She took it and together they started running towards the shore.

The water was _freezing_ and both of them were shouting in horror and amazement as it splashed around their ankles.

"Fuck!" Duo shouted, but he was still grinning and Relena bent down to splash water at him.

He shouted again and started to run through the water. He was clumsy and slow and Relena easily kept pace with him.

They were laughing and shouting and completely oblivious to everything around them until a dog came barrelling out of seemingly nowhere, barking as it raced towards them.

Duo yelped and put himself in front of Relena as the dog dove through the waves and jumped at them.

The dog's weight landed on Duo's chest and all three of them fell backwards into the water.

Relena gasped as the icy waves washed over her, swallowing a mouthful of water in the process.

She flailed about but finally managed to surface, coughing and struggling for air as she crouched in the water.

Duo was right there beside her, trying to catch his breath as well.

And the dog -

The dog was licking Duo's face and wagging its tail in delight.

Duo tried to turn his head away.

"You okay?" He asked Relena.

She nodded when she was finally able to draw in a normal, if slightly raw breath.

The dog barked again and turned to lick the other side of Duo's face.

"Ugh, get off!" Duo tried to push the dog away but the dog seemed to think it was some kind of game and started splashing around in the water, barking and wagging its tail.

Relena helped Duo up to his feet and they both eyed the dog warily.

"Are you two okay?"

Relena looked up to see a tall man standing in front of them, the sunset illuminating one side of his body in golden light.

The man was… he had to be some kind of model or something who had just wandered out onto the beach. Dressed in jeans and a sweater, his auburn hair windswept and covering half of his face, obscuring one green eye and the spray of freckles across his nose.

She was staring. She had no idea how _long_ she had been staring, but the look on the man's face made it clear that it had been long enough to make him question her sanity.

And then Relena realized that, beside her, Duo was silent.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and he seemed just as transfixed as she was.

"Fine," Relena managed, speaking around her suddenly dry throat and hammering heart. "We're just fine."

"Yep, couldn't be better," Duo added.

The man arched an eyebrow.

"It looks like you couldn't be _wetter_ ," he countered.

Duo laughed at the pun, a forced, nervous laugh that had both Relena and the stranger rolling their eyes.

He caught her doing it and his full lips tilted into a smirk that did all kinds of things to Relena's stomach.

"I'm sorry about Cathy," the man said. "The beach is usually pretty empty this time of year, so I just let her run free."

The dog in question was currently jumping through the waves, barking delightly at the them.

Relena couldn't help but smile a little.

"Ah, no worries," Duo said. "We were planning on going swimming anyway."

Trowa arched an eyebrow.

"It's forty degrees out here."

"Yeah, I mean, when you say things like that it seems like a bad idea," Duo allowed.

The words reminded Relena of just how cold and wet she was. Her leggings felt as if they were painted on - and still wet, her boots were full of water and her sweater clung to her like a wet, heavy weight. Beside her Duo looked just bad, the Davidson Rugby sweater he had liberated from an old boyfriend's closet clinging to him, his khakis molded to his legs and his hair sticking to his face in wild clumps. She was sure her own hair looked just as bad.

"Can I give you a ride somewhere - are you staying close by?"

"We just drove down for the day," Relena told him.

The man looked them up and down.

"I can't let you drive back like this," he said. "I can wash and dry your clothes for you."

Duo looked over at her, a question in his eyes.

Years of being told not to trust strangers, of being lectured to never go somewhere with a boy she didn't know, had Relena shaking her head no.

"We'll be fine," she insisted, mentally praying she or Duo had left a sweater or _something_ in the trunk of her car recently.

"I promise I'm not a creep or an axe-murderer," the man said. "I just - I want to do something for you after my dog ruined your day."

"Day was already ruined," Duo waved the man off and started to slog out of the water, holding out his hand to help Relena do the same.

"If your day was already ruined then I really have to make it up to you," the stranger said. "Cathy!" The dog bounded over to his side. "Please - my house is a block away."

A gust of wind made Relena shiver.

"I mean, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to kidnap people and tie them up in his basement," Duo leaned in close to whisper to Relena.

"That's probably because people take one look at him and _beg_ him to tie them up. He doesn't need to kidnap anyone," Relena retorted.

Duo snorted a laugh.

"Plus we're at the beach. He probably doesn't have a basement."

"So what I'm hearing is we're going to say yes, right? Because I am not looking forward to a four hour drive in cold, wet, sandy clothes."

Relena wanted to say no, really, really wanted to say no. But the mental image of them having to sit in her car like that, for that long, made her feel even worse than she had that morning.

She sighed, giving in.

Duo smirked.

"We'd love to," he told the stranger. "I'm Duo, by the way," he added and held out his hand.

"Trowa," the man said, shaking his hand and then holding his hand out to Relena.

"Relena," she shook his hand, quickly, trying very hard not to think about how warm and large his rough hand was or the tiny spark she felt at his touch.

"Shall we?" Trowa asked and gestured up the beach.

They followed him, Relena feeling colder and colder with each step as the sun finally set and the wind bit at their skin and clothes.

Beside her, Duo wrapped his arms around himself and shivered.

"It's not as bad as that time we went snow swimming," he muttered and Relena didn't know if he was trying to convince himself or her.

The walk to Trowa's house felt painfully long, but it was only a few minutes after they left the water that they walked up to a small green cottage on stilts, the paint chipped off the siding lending it an almost romantic air in the fading light.

"I need to wash the dog off," Trowa told them. "Let me run in and grab you two some towels and - some clothes to change into while I wash yours?" He offered.

Relena nodded, though it felt weird, bizarre even to be accepting this from a total stranger.

"Can you hold her for a moment?" Trowa asked and held out the leash he had put on Cathy when they left the beach.

Relena took the leash when Duo stared at it, clearly a little traumatized from having the dog jump on him in the first place.

They watched Trowa take the stairs two at a time and disappear out of view as he went up to the cottage, leaving them standing in the floodlight just under the porch.

"Okay, he's like the hottest guy on the planet," Duo said as soon as they heard the door open above them.

Relena gave him a look.

"What? I'm just saying - he's really, insanely hot. You don't think so?"

"Of course I do - but I'm not going to start drooling over him."

"Please. I saw you back at the beach. You were a heartbeat away from swooning into his arms."

Relena smacked him on the arm.

"I was not! And I don't swoon!"

"Uh huh," Duo gave her a knowing look.

"It was _one_ time and I tripped - I was lucky Alex was there to catch me."

"Lucky. Yeah. I'd use the more appropriate word conniving, but we'll go with lucky if it makes you feel better."

Relena hit him in the arm.

"Ow. You get violent when you're around a hot guy," Duo muttered.

"He's not that hot," Relena responded.

"You been hanging around some Calvin Klein models without telling me or something - because this guy is hot. As in the kind of hot that makes me want to ask him very nicely if he will tie me up and do all kinds of dirty things to me."

"You need to get laid," Relena retorted.

"Amen, sister, which is kind of my point."

Relena arched an eyebrow at him.

"You have a point? You aren't just going to ramble about your sexual fantasy with the hot stranger until he comes back and hears us talking about him at a horribly inappropriate moment?"

"My point _is_ ," Duo said, speaking as if Relena hadn't, "we should seize this opportunity."

"Seize what opportunity? The chance to get warm and dry?"

"No, the chance to have a sex with the hot stranger."

"Duo, what are you even -"

"Look, it's been a really, really shitty day. And then, like a knight in sexy freckles, this guy comes out of nowhere and saves us from being cold and wet -"

"After his dog _made_ us cold and wet," Relena interjected.

Duo waved.

"That's beside the point. The point is - the universe is telling us to seize this chance. Tell me honestly Relena, that you don't want to have sex with this guy?"

"Honestly I don't! I'm not so desperate that I want to fall into bed with some hot stranger!"

"Okay but what if this is our chance to have a threesome - what if this is our chance to -"

Trowa came down the stairs, arms laden with towels.

"Here," he said, handing the towels to Duo and taking the leash back from Relena. "I left some clothes for you two upstairs - just inside the door. If you want to change and just pile your wet things on the towels I can wash them for you."

"Are you really sure this is okay?" Relena had to ask again as she took one of the towels from Duo and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"Of course - I wouldn't offer if it wasn't."

-o-


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Maeve suggested this idea and it was too big for the 31 Days of Smut. Duo and Relena fail a test, decide to blow off their day and drive to the beach where they encounter beach!Trowa. This also features one of the 31 Days of Smut prompts worked in, courtesy of AmberlyinViolet (I have way more than 31 prompts and this one was one of my favorites: 2x3xR with Trowa holding down Duo tickling him… and things).

A/N 2: I love reviews. I crave them. They make me smile and they make my fingers fly when I sit down to write. They introduce me to wonderful people who I become friends with and who give me all kinds of headcanons and ideas that will not go away until I sit down to write them (true story: Unexpected happened because of Luvsanime02; Entanglement because of Miss Murdered; countless one-shots from other amazing people). So, please, take the time to review.

A/N 3: I've got a bunch of ref images for this on my tumblr page "at" claraxbarton that you might want to check out.

A/N 4: Wake Forest, Duke, Davidson= great private schools in NC. Oak Island=lovely beach on the coast of NC. Davidson is about 20 minutes north of Charlotte, NC as a reference point.

A/N 5: Title from the lyrics of Peaches by In the Valley Below

Warnings: angst, smut, language

Pairings: 2x3xR

 _Working on a Feeling_

It was small, Relena couldn't help but notice as she looked around the interior of the house, with the kitchen, living room, dining room and bedroom all occupying the open space of the house, a few doors indicating where a bathroom and closets probably were. While the floorboards underfoot looked old and warn, the walls and most of the furniture were a white that, even in the soft light from the kitchen, seemed clean and fresh.

Duo arched an eyebrow at her.

"Think it looks like the home of an axe murderer?" He asked as he pulled off his wet sweater.

Relena shook her head. She wasn't sure _what_ the home of an axe murderer looked like but she didn't think this was it.

She followed Duo's example, taking off her wet clothes and rubbing her body dry while he sorted through the things Trowa had left for them.

"You can have the plaid," Duo suggested and passed Relena a pair of plaid flannel pajama bottoms and a plaid button up shirt that in no way matched.

"Oh, you know how I love plaid," Relena snarked but she stepped out of her underwear and gamely pulled on the pajama bottoms. They were loose, riding low on her hips and dragging the floor, but they fit.

She put on the shirt and started to button it up while Duo, already in a pair of sweatpants, pulled on a faded Princeton sweater.

"You look good in that," she said with a smirk.

Duo rolled his eyes but returned the smirk.

"I look good in everything," he said. "And you look like a kid wearing oversized grown up clothes," he said, smirk changing into a smile as Relena finished buttoning up the shirt and started to roll up the sleeves.

"That's because I am," Relena muttered. She couldn't deny a certain amount of pleasure at the feeling though, at wearing the clothes of this ridiculously good looking stranger.

"Here," Duo reached out and unbuttoned the top two buttons of the shirt.

"Duo -" Relena stepped back but he batted her hands away when she went to button it back up.

"Come on, Relena - even if you don't want to fall into bed with the guy, what's the harm in flirting a little?"

"Maybe he isn't interested? Maybe we'll just be throwing ourselves at this gorgeous guy - and who knows if he even likes girls or guys much less _both_!"

"Hey, I know the odds are like, legitimately never with us - but I think we should give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I could end up pregnant and with STDs while you end up chopped up in a dumpster?"

Duo cocked his head to the side and stared at her.

"Okay, that was way too detailed to have been the first time you worried about that happening to us and also - if he doesn't have condoms then it's a no go. Deal?"

"You really expect me to agree to _try_ to have a threesome with a total stranger?"

"Yeah?"

Relena opened her mouth to start listing even more ways this was a very, very bad idea when Trowa, followed by a rather wet Cathy, entered the house.

Cathy ran over to them, wagging her tail madly and whining until Relena leaned down to pet her.

He stared at them for a moment, frowning slightly.

"Er… is this - were we not supposed to -?" Duo tried to ask.

"No, no, it's fine. Sorry. I'm just not used to seeing other people in my clothes," Trowa shrugged.

"Not your girlfriend?" Duo asked. "Or boyfriend?" He quickly, hopefully, added.

Relena rolled her eyes at him.

"Haven't had one of those in a while," Trowa said with another shrug.

He took the bundle of wet clothes from Duo.

"I'll put these in the wash," he said and walked past them to one of the doors.

Relena gave Duo a look.

"What? I was just asking - and don't act like you aren't just as curious as I am," he whispered.

Relena was, but she also really didn't think she should be.

"He said he hadn't had one of _those_ in a while," Duo continued. "Do you think that means - do you think he's gay or straight - or bi?" Duo added in a slightly dreamy voice that had Relena hitting him again.

"Ow! Seriously, Relena. He could be bi, this could be our chance to -"

"They should be ready to switch over in half an hour or so," Trowa spoke up.

Duo flushed and Relena rolled her eyes. He _should_ be embarrassed. Fantasizing about hooking up with a stranger they had just met.

Though, now that he had put the idea out there, Relena couldn't help but agree that it had a certain merit to it. A certain merit that still, absolutely, did not outweigh all the possibilities for disaster. It would be much safer to just forget the whole thing.

Trowa called Cathy back to his side and put out a plate of food for her.

"Can I get you anything?" Trowa asked. "I have water, beer… I'd offer you dinner but all I have is left-over pizza. Are you hungry?"

"No," Relena said immediately, "we're fine."

Despite her assurance, her stomach growled, as though to protest her lie.

Trowa arched an eyebrow and his sensuous lips twitched.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not," Duo said, "I love left-over pizza."

Trowa nodded and moved into the kitchen area.

With his back turned, it was Duo's turn to give Relena a look.

"C'mon, Relena," he muttered, "if the hot beach guy wants to give us pizza, let him give us pizza."

She rolled her eyes but spoke up.

"I'd like some too," she said.

Trowa turned to nod at her over his shoulder.

A few minutes later they were sitting around his small kitchen table, eating cold pizza and drinking water.

"So why did you drive down for the day? Celebrating an anniversary or something?"

"Oh, no, we aren't dating," Relena said reflexively. So many people assumed that she and Duo were either a couple or siblings. She wondered if that would be Trowa's next guess.

But Trowa just arched one of his elegant eyebrows.

"We're friends, best friends," Duo added. "Have been for years. And while I'm Relena's back-up for drunken make-out sessions and she's my back-up for cuddling, I generally prefer guys and she generally prefers guys with shorter hair - kind of like yours."

Relena turned on Duo with wide, furious eyes.

He just grinned back at her and Trowa snorted a laugh.

Relena turned her angry gaze on him.

"Sorry," Trowa held up one hand, "I just find it hard to believe that either of you has to rely on a back-up for making out or cuddling."

That… sounded suspiciously like flirtation.

"We just have high standards," Duo said, thankfully jarring Relena out of staring at Trowa.

Relena forced herself to eat the pizza and put all thoughts of Duo's insane plan out of her mind. They were just going to eat cold pizza, wait for their clothes to be clean and dry, and then make the four hour drive back to Davidson so they could go to classes the next day.

"So Princeton?" Duo asked and plucked at the sweatshirt he wore.

Trowa nodded, but didn't elaborate.

Which, now that Relena thought about it, was odd. Trowa looked their age, but he could be older. Had he already graduated? And what was he doing at the beach during the offseason? Living in this miniscule cottage on the beach?

"Did you, ah… graduate?"

"No," Trowa said neutrally.

Relena stared at him. He didn't sound ashamed, didn't sound… anything about it.

"Why not?" She found herself asking, realizing the second she did how incredibly inappropriate the question was, even without Duo giving her a look of horror.

Trowa offered her a small, bitter smile and a shrug.

"Because sometimes deviating from the life that's been planned out for you is the only way to realize you're even still alive."

The words hit Relena hard. It wasn't just the sad tone Trowa said them in, wasn't just the bitterness on his face, it was the realization that it was exactly how she felt - exactly what she had been looking for.

She found herself looking at Trowa with renewed interest while, Duo, across the table, frowned slightly at both of them.

"And you two?" Trowa asked.

"Juniors at Davidson, no plans to throw away our lives though," Duo said.

Trowa arched an eyebrow at the words and the tone but he shrugged again.

"I wouldn't say I had thrown _my_ life away."

"Yeah - let me guess, you've got buckets of money so it's okay for you to sit around here in your little beach hut and do nothing with your life?"

Trowa looked amused by Duo's irritation, while Relena found herself wondering, not for the first time, if Duo ever resented the fact that _she_ had money.

"I hate to ruin this narrative you're working on but no. My uncle left me the house, but I work at the island animal shelter and I get a few shifts a week stocking the grocery store."

Duo's face turned bright red and he lowered his eyes to the table.

Relena could understand his embarrassment - Duo had had a lifelong struggle foot-in-mouth disease as he called it, and she had been on hand to see it turn situations horribly wrong.

"I, uh… why would you drop out of Princeton for this?" Duo asked, despite his clear discomfort.

"Because I realized that becoming a stockbroker wasn't going to make me happy. When my uncle… when he killed himself I realized that I was going to become him - I was going to wake up in thirty years and realize that my life had ended a long, long time ago. So I dropped out of school, moved to a place I love, got a job doing something I love, and I get by. Would you like me to return the favor and make assumptions about _you_ based on the fact that you go to Davidson and still took off in the middle of the week, probably skipping classes?"

Duo, still red faced, shook his head.

"No ah, I'm good. And I'm sorry."

There was a long, painfully awkward pause as both men stared at the pizza in front of them, mouths tight and jaws clenched.

"You know, I've never met anyway who had such a passion for stocking groceries. I admire that."

They both looked at her like she was crazy. Trowa realized first that she was making a joke, was trying to ease the tension and he smirked, just slightly, but he also sat back and relaxed in his chair.

Duo let out a breath and shook his head.

Before he could say anything else, a distant buzzer sounded.

"I should switch those over," Trowa said and got up from the table.

As soon as he was on the other side of the room, Relena kicked Duo under the table.

"Ow! Jesus, I'm sorry!"

"You're the one with all the big plans for a threesome - now look at you ruining them."

Duo arched an eyebrow.

"And look at you all interested in him now that you know he's a burnout."

She glared at Duo.

"He just put into words exactly how I'm feeling."

"So, what, you going to drop out of school and go get a job as a camp counselor and hospital janitor on the side?"

" _No_ ," Relena hissed. "It's not like that. It's - "

She cut herself off when Trowa walked back over to them and sat down, an amused expression on his face.

"If you're talking about me behind my back - which is rude since you're guests in my house - I hope it's at least something interesting."

Duo rolled his eyes.

"We weren't," Relena said. "Not really," she added, blushing, as she thought about Duo's idea once again. "And we really appreciate the food - and the chance to have dry clothes."

Duo nodded in glum agreement.

"So said earlier your day was already ruined - what happened?" Trowa asked.

"Oh you know, asshole lab partners who think you aren't good enough to wipe their asses let alone you know, work with you as a partner. That and sexist, pervert faculty," Duo added with a gesture to Relena.

Trowa frowned.

"So you... "

"Cut class and drove down to the beach? Yeah."

Trowa smiled for a second before compressing his lips and nodding.

"What?" Relena asked.

"Oh? Nothing. No judgement here," Trowa said and held up both hands.

Duo rolled his eyes.

"Just say it."

Trowa shrugged.

"It sounds a lot like what I did."

"Yeah but this is a one day thing," Duo argued.

"So was mine until it wasn't."

That gave Duo pause.

"So is this… it for you?" Relena had to ask. "Working two jobs to get by for the rest of your life?"

Trowa shrugged.

"I don't know. I'm not sure I see myself here in ten years but for the moment, this is what I want to be doing."

"You don't worry about the future?"

Trowa shrugged again.

"Like I said, I realized before that planning out my whole life and sticking to it was going to get more nowhere. At least nowhere that I wanted to be."

It was clear that Duo was still nonplussed, but his frown had softened slightly the more Trowa spoke.

"And you're… happy?" Duo asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Trowa answered, voice amused. "Besides, if I hadn't dropped out of Princeton and moved down here I never would have had the chance to meet you two."

Duo snorted and even Relena rolled her eyes at that.

Trowa stood up and moved to clear away their empty plates.

"Oh, I've got it," Duo jumped up and took the plates from Trowa's hands.

Trowa smirked and sat back down.

"Just put them in the sink, I'll take care of them later."

"Well," Duo said, "now that we've gotten the awkward insults out of the way what should we talk about?" He gave s self-deprecating smirk that had both Relena and Trowa smiling softly at him in return.

"There's always your plan to seduce me - you could go into more detail about how you see that happening," Trowa offered.

Duo's smirk fell away as his mouth opened and he stared at Trowa in horror.

"Or is that off the table now that you know I dropped out of college?"

"I, uh… look it's not like it was a _plan_ per se so much as me just talking out of my ass and… a little help here Relena?"

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.

"It wasn't _my_ idea," she felt the need to point out.

Duo huffed at her betrayal. His face was flushed again and he looked, she couldn't help but think, as adorable as he had accused her of looking earlier.

"So you're not interested?" Trowa asked, looking over at her with a raised eyebrow.

Relena felt her mouth go dry.

Trowa's green eyes seemed to be laughing at the shocked silence his question provoked.

He waited, seemingly content to have both Duo and Relena blushing and speechless.

"I wouldn't say that I'm not interested," Relena finally said. "It just seems...I don't know, like a fantasy?"

"How do you even know about it, anyway?" Duo asked.

Trowa smirked.

"That's a screen door," he said, jerking his finger towards it, "and this is a small house."

"Okay, that's fair. So I'm not the world's quietest person."

"No?"

Duo stared at Trowa, clearly trying to decide if he should be offended by the sarcastic comment.

"Look," Duo finally said. "You're - you know, all gorgeous and smirky and you've got the freckles and the confidence but Relena's right, it was just a fantasy. Just a… you know, me saying shit to try to make this day seem better."

Trowa nodded thoughtfully.

"Easier to just think of me as a fantasy when you didn't know anything about my life, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…" Duo laughed and shook his head. "Fantasy and reality don't really blend too well together."

"Too bad," Trowa said. He got up from the table and walked over the the refrigerator.

Relena watched as he pulled out a bottle of Blue Moon, opened it, and took a sip.

"I even have plenty of condoms - and lube," he added before tossing the beer cap into his trash can.

Duo stared, slack-jawed, and even Relena was flustered by the show Trowa was clearly putting on.

This guy was definitely confident and definitely willing to use their attraction towards him to his advantage.

Duo looked over at Relena and arched an eyebrow in silent question.

She lifted her shoulders. She no longer thought it was the worst idea ever - but she still didn't see how this was going to happen.

Duo nodded, as if able to understand what she was thinking.

"So we haven't ever…"

"You're virgins?" Trowa asked in disbelief.

"What? No!" Duo scoffed. "We've had sex it's just -"

"Not with each other," Trowa guessed.

"No, no, we've done that too."

They had decided, the summer before they went to college, to be each other's firsts. Duo's logic - he didn't want his first time with another person to be a drunken mess at a party, Relena's - she wanted her first time to be with someone she cared about. Over the years that had had sex a few more times - and it had always been good, always been _fun_ , but also always something that just sort of happened when they weren't dating people.

"You've never had a threesome," Trowa concluded, finally guessing correctly.

Relena nodded.

Trowa shrugged.

"Neither have I. But I got into Princeton, and while Davidson isn't an Ivy, you two don't strike me as too lacking in intelligence. We could probably figure out what goes where."

Duo clearly wanted to take umbrage at the slight to Davidson and their intelligence, so Relena spoke up before he could.

"I'm not into anal sex," she said.

Trowa raised an eyebrow and she shrugged.

"I want to be very clear about this, if we're going to do it. It won't be me in the middle of this."

Duo raised a hand.

"I don't mind anal," he said, "that is, if you…"

"Neither do I," Trowa smirked.

Relena felt her heart thud and she was sure it was loud enough for them to hear.

 _Was this really about to happen?_

"So, do we, ah…" Duo scratched at the back of his neck, "what happens now?"

-o-


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Maeve suggested this idea and it was too big for the 31 Days of Smut. Duo and Relena fail a test, decide to blow off their day and drive to the beach where they encounter beach!Trowa. This also features one of the 31 Days of Smut prompts worked in, courtesy of AmberlyinViolet (I have way more than 31 prompts and this one was one of my favorites: 2x3xR with Trowa holding down Duo tickling him… and things).

A/N 2: I love reviews. I crave them. They make me smile and they make my fingers fly when I sit down to write. They introduce me to wonderful people who I become friends with and who give me all kinds of headcanons and ideas that will not go away until I sit down to write them (true story: Unexpected happened because of Luvsanime02; Entanglement because of Miss Murdered; countless one-shots from other amazing people). So, please, take the time to review.

A/N 3: I've got a bunch of ref images for this on my tumblr page "at" claraxbarton that you might want to check out.

A/N 4: Wake Forest, Duke, Davidson= great private schools in NC. Oak Island=lovely beach on the coast of NC. Davidson is about 20 minutes north of Charlotte, NC as a reference point.

A/N 5: Title from the lyrics of Peaches by In the Valley Below

Warnings: angst, smut, language

Pairings: 2x3xR

 _Working on a Feeling_

After Trowa suggested that the folding table he used in the kitchen probably wasn't the best option, considering he had a perfectly functioning bed a few feet away, they moved out of the kitchen and to the bed.

And stood there, side by side, staring down at it.

Cathy, sitting on the couch, looked at them, her brows raised in what Relena knew had to be judgement.

"Is this one of those times when something _seems_ like a good idea, but it really isn't?" Duo asked.

Trowa frowned slightly.

"You know, like when they advertise that if you eat a forty-eight ounce steak in twenty minutes it'll be free and you think to yourself - hell yes! But then, fifteen minutes later, you're regretting every decision you've ever made in life?"

Trowa laughed.

"Also, now that I've said that, I realize it might sound like a commentary on my ability to put big pieces of meat in my mouth but I want to assure you I'm up to whatever challenge you present."

Trowa smirked and lifted an eyebrow, and it was Relena's turn to laugh.

"Duo, I'm pretty sure you've impressed Trowa enough by your ability to insert your own foot in your mouth - he's probably not too worried."

Duo made a face at her.

And then they went back to staring at the bed.

Trowa sighed.

"We don't have to do this. I… I think I have a deck of cards around here somewhere. We can just… do something else while we wait for your clothes to dry and then you can be on your way."

It certainly sounded easier, sounded less awkward.

But it also sounded like something that would send Relena back to her normal life, feeling very ordinary and very, very disenchanted.

"No," Relena decided. She pulled the too-large plaid shirt over her head and dropped it onto the floor.

Both Duo and Trowa stared at her, Duo with a slight, fond smile on his face and Trowa with more naked appreciation.

"This is how she got to be prom queen," Duo said.

Trowa arched an eyebrow.

"By taking off her shirt?"

Duo chuckled.

"No," he said and pulled off his borrowed sweater, "by taking charge. By the time voting got around no one even thought they were _allowed_ to vote for someone besides Relena."

Trowa smiled at that, the expression softer than his more sardonic smirk and Relena felt her heart skip a beat at the expression. He pulled his own sweater off and Relena had to stare.

A large, geometric lion tattoo covered most of Trowa's chest. The simple, thin black lines stretched from his clavicle almost to his naval.

 _As if_ , Relena couldn't help but think, _he needed to be any more attractive_.

She knew she wasn't alone in liking tattoos - she and Duo had made a habit of pointing out attractive men and women sporting ink for years and it had become a competition of sorts, to see who could find the most attractive, most interested tattooed person.

Duo smirked at her, clearly thinking of the same thing, and Relena was very tempted to announce that they had _both_ won this time.

Instead, she hooked her fingers into the waistband of the flannel pajamas and arched an eyebrow in challenge to the two men.

Almost in unison, the three pulled down their pants and then stood, naked, admiring each other's bodies.

She watched Duo's eyes traverse Trowa's body with the same curiosity that she felt, both of them admiring his tan skin, his taut belly and long, firm legs that seemed to go for days. Relena found her lips quirking into a smile when she looked at Trowa's groin, at the thatch of auburn curls that were just a shade darker than the hair on his head, but still very noticeably _red_.

She swallowed hard at the sight of his semi-erect penis nestled among the curls and felt herself lick her lips in anticipation.

Trowa made some kind of noise, something low and guttural and she looked up to see him staring intently at her.

Even now that they were naked, even now that Relena and Duo were practically devouring Trowa with their eyes while Trowa seemed to be enjoying looking between their bodies, that same slight, self-satisfied smirk on his face, it seemed they all still found it a challenge to actually _do_ anything.

"Why don't you two start," Trowa suggested after a moment, "and I'll join in."

Duo shrugged.

"Yeah, that sounds good - Relena?"

She nodded in agreement and felt herself relax when Duo put his hands around her waist, pulling her close so that the length of their bodies were pressed together.

He kissed her on the lips, light and teasing and, as it always did with Duo, it felt fun and _easy_ to kiss him back, to tease him just as much as he teased her, licking and nibbling and sucking until they were both a little breathless, both flushed and aroused.

She felt Duo's hands slide up her back, his familiar hands ghosting over her skin in the way that he _knew_ would make her shiver and arch into the touch.

Duo smirked against her lips, pleased with himself, and Relena decided to return the favor.

She bit into Duo's lower lip as she raked her nails down his chest, over his abdomen and he shuddered and tried to pull away.

It was her turn to smirk, as he glared at her.

"What else makes him do that?" Trowa asked.

Relena turned to him and arched an eyebrow.

"You mean where else is he ticklish?"

"No! No, that's not what he meant," Duo protested and started to move away. "He meant what else makes me shudder - like sucking on my earlobe or something. Right?"

Trowa laughed.

"I did, actually, but Relena's idea has a certain kind of merit to it."

They grinned at each other and Relena pushed Duo face-first onto the bed. Before he could move, she straddled his back, pinning him down with her weight, and gestured to his thighs.

Trowa knelt down on the bed beside Duo's feet.

"Haha, funny game you two but can we just -"

Relena expected him to reach out and tease Duo with his fingers, but instead, Trowa leaned down and licked the backs of Duo's thighs.

Duo jerked in surprise, his hips bucking so forcefully that Relena almost fell off his back, and he made a sound that was something between a moan and a giggle.

Trowa grinned at that, teeth flashing white behind his lips as he leaned down and licked Duo's skin again.

Duo squirmed frantically, trying to get free and Relena had to laugh.

Her laughter quickly turned into a shriek when Duo reached out to tickle her feet.

She lost her balance and fell over, allowing Duo to escape.

He glared at her, flushed and breathing heavily. It looked like he was about to attack her again, she could practically see his fingers itching, but then he grinned and looked over at Trowa.

The other man snorted and held up his hands.

"Be my guest. I'm not ticklish. At all."

It was a challenge both Relena and Duo took seriously. They maneuvered Trowa down onto the bed and started with all of the standard spots - neck, armpits, sides, thighs, knees, feet - and came up with nothing.

Well, they came up with no laughter, no suppressed giggles. Trowa laid on his back, hands tucked behind his head, hair covering half his face and a wide smirk on his lips.

Relena was determined to wipe that smirk off his face - no matter how attractive it was on him.

She ran her fingers down the inside of his thigh, feeling his muscles quiver under her touch, and then, just above his knee, she curled her fingers and tried to tickle him, hoping the sudden, unexpected move would startle him into a reaction.

Trowa merely raised an eyebrow.

Duo went for another approach. He propped himself up beside Trowa and licked a trail down the other man's abdomen, glancing over the mane of the lion tattoo on Trowa's chest. Duo then pulled back and blew on the moist flesh he had left in the wake of his tongue.

Trowa shivered, hummed in contentment even.

"Told you," Trowa said smugly, "no reaction."

"Well, I wouldn't say _no_ reaction," Relena argued, eyeing Trowa's very erect cock. She had watched it grow in size while she and Duo teased him, until it was now fully erect, a glistening bead of precum on the head.

All of the nervousness and awkwardness she had felt before was gone - the tickling had been a good idea, had relaxed all of them and given them the chance to touch each other, to learn Trowa's body, that wasn't, strictly speaking, sexual.

Now, however, all of Relena's thoughts turned away from harmless tickling and towards a decidedly sexual direction.

"Fair enough," Trowa agreed.

He reached down, smearing the precum with his thumb, and stroked the shaft of his cock once.

"You have a fucking gorgeous cock," Duo muttered.

"So do you," Trowa replied and reached over to stroke Duo's cock.

Duo grunted in surprise, then bit his lower lip.

Relena had always wondered what two guys together looked like - when she and Duo discussed their sexual fantasies, when they talked through their dream threesome, it was always with two men, both of them agreeing that an extra cock never hurt.

Duo leaned closer to Trowa and started to stroke him as well, so that the two of them laid there, side by side, stroking each other.

Relena could feel her own arousal spread, could feel her nipples, already hard, become almost painfully so and she could practically feel the heat radiating from her vagina, could feel the lubrication of her sex.

Trowa looked over at her, his eyes half closed, the smirk finally gone from his face.

"Come here," he instructed, and she moved closer.

He used his free hand to cradle her skull and pull her face to his, kissing her with his sensuous lips.

His lips were dry, slightly chapped and she imagined it was from the wind and the cold of the beach. She traced over his lips with her tongue, wondering if she would taste salt, and when he opened his mouth to her she slipped inside the wet heat and sighed.

Trowa's hand shifted from her skull and down her back, his large palm warm and rough against her smooth skin. His fingers curved around her ass, squeezing lightly as he brought her closer to him, shifted her onto his thigh so that she was straddling it.

She moaned at the sudden friction between her legs and she rubbed against him, spreading the lips of her sex open and feeling her own moisture on his skin.

Trowa's hand clutched at her hip, steadying her even as his kiss turned a little frantic, his tongue thrusting into her mouth almost on pace with the way his hips thrust up to meet Duo's hand.

Relena had to pull away from the kiss after a moment, had to suck in a gulp of air and she looked down at Trowa, at his unfocused eyes and wet, parted lips.

"Holy shit, you two are the sexiest thing I've ever seen," Duo practically moaned beside them.

Relena turned to her best friend, saw the flush on Duo's face and chest, saw the way he bit one corner of his bottom lip while drawing in uneven breaths, and she knew he was close.

She leaned over to kiss him, swallowing his moan of pleasure as Trowa did something that Duo seemed to find particularly enjoyable.

Relena wrapped one hand around Duo's neck, holding him close, and with her free hand she reached for Trowa, stroking her fingers over his chest until she found one hard, flat nipple and rolled it.

Trowa groaned, the sound raw and visceral and beside her, Duo shuddered and gasped into her mouth.

She let him pull away and had to smile when he fell back onto the bed beside Trowa, eyes closed and breathing heavily, Trowa still stroking his spent cock, milking a final stream of thick, cream semen from him before Duo shied away.

Trowa let him go, smirking, pleased with himself no doubt. He lifted his hand to his lips and licked Duo's cum, holding Relena's gaze steadily while he cleaned himself.

She felt a sharp current of arousal at the sight and leaned down to kiss him, tasting Duo and the beach.

Relena continued to ride his thigh, rocking back and forth on the hard muscles, feeling his neglected cock rub against her belly as she moved. Both of Trowa's hands were now at her waist, urging her on and Relena continued to play with his nipples.

"Duo, you're being lazy," Relena admonished her best friend.

"Mm?" Duo rolled over, still looking thoroughly wrecked and wrapped in post-orgasmic bliss. He watched them for a moment, a slow smirk spreading across his face, before he moved closer. It was the smirk of trouble, of 'I've got an idea and it is a very bad one.'

Relena felt her breath catching at that smirk. She remembered it, very well, from so many times before.

Duo licked his hand before wrapping it around Trowa's cock again, his hand moving at a slow pace.

"Look at our girl, there, Trowa? Look at that dirty girl riding your thigh like she's in a damn rodeo," Duo said. "And look at those tits, Trowa. Begging for attention, don't you think? Bet they'd fit so good in your hands, too. Go on - give her a taste of her own medicine."

Trowa let out a ragged breath and his eyes narrowed but he followed Duo's instructions, pushing aside one of Relena's hands so he could reach up to her.

His calloused palm cupped her right breast, completing covering it and she shivered as he ran his thumb over her swollen nipple.

"Oh look at her face, Trowa. This girl is going to get off just humping your damn leg. Pinch her nipple and I guarantee she's going to cry out - going to be so close to coming that you can _feel_ it."

Trowa did, pinching the sensitive flesh just this side of painful and Relena did cry out, didn't even bother to fight against the pleasure or Duo's prediction.

Beneath her, Trowa bucked.

"You like that too, huh? Like seeing our girl get off on you? What else do you like, Trowa? Would you like to see her touch herself? Want to see what she likes best?"

Trowa nodded and Duo arched an eyebrow at Relena.

"Well? Give the man what he wants, Relena. Show him what you like."

Duo had pulled this before - the bossy as fuck in bed card - and Relena hated how much she enjoyed it. She had tried it on a boyfriend once, who had been less than enthusiastic, but when she had turned the tables on Duo a few times she found that _he_ enjoyed it even more than she did.

For now, though, Relena followed orders and ran her left hand over her left breast, massaging her own skin with just enough pressure to make her writhe against Trowa's thigh.

Both men were watching her with hooded eyes, that smirk still on Duo's face, and Trowa's lips barely parted as he seemed to be fighting to keep his breathing even.

"Hm, that's good Relena. You're enjoying that aren't you? Touching yourself with us watching?"

She had to nod in agreement, Duo's words exciting her almost as much as her own touch.

"What else do you like, Relena? I know Trowa's hard thigh feels good to grind against but don't you want something more? Doesn't your clit need some attention?"

Relena moaned and even though she blushed, even though she felt as dirty as Duo had described her for doing this - for humping against a complete stranger - she had to agree.

She had to lean back a little as she spread open her labia and Trowa propped himself up on his elbows, intent on getting a better look, and his movement jarred against her in a sharp upward thrust that had her moaning again.

And now _he_ was smirking again. Relena knew she shouldn't be even more turned on by that look - in other, more clothed circumstances that smirk would have had her ready to start an argument. But right now, it just aroused her and urged her on.

She slipped two fingers into her tight, wet heat and found her clit. She rubbed against the bundle of nerves, circling it and applying just enough pressure to make herself want more.

"Gorgeous, yeah?" Duo asked Trowa, a fondness in his voice that made Relena look over at him.

His evil smirk was gone, and instead he was looking at her in a way that made her heart feel painfully tight in her chest.

It was the same way he had looked at her when they graduated high school, when she threw her arms around him and kissed him out of the sheer joy of being _done._ The way he had looked at her on Valentine's Day of their freshmen year, just a week after Relena's boyfriend had dumped her and Duo had shown up at her dorm with the most enormous Hershey Kiss she had ever seen and a kitchen knife. The way he had when they moved off campus as sophomore's and he had carried her over the threshold of their apartment a la old romantic movies. The way he had looked at her when she practically force fed him soup when he was sick over winter break a few months ago.

"Yeah," Trowa agreed.

"You should see what she looks like when she comes. It's like she's seeing color for the first time, like every time she comes she's overwhelmed by it. Show him, Relena. Show him how fucking amazing it is to watch you come. To watch you just jump over the edge and let go. Come for him Relena."

And she did, Duo's words pushing her closer and closer, her fingers working against her clitoris until she felt so tight, tense and pulsing and engulfed by sensation and then there it was - that blinding moment of release that left her breathless and empty and _complete_.

She felt Trowa's hands on her hips again, felt his fingers digging into her thighs and she couldn't be bothered, honestly didn't care that his grip was hard enough she was going to bruise.

Duo leaned over and kissed her again, light and teasing and just enough to make her feel settled, to push back any creeping doubt or need to feel ashamed of what she had just done.

"Can you please stop torturing me now?" Trowa growled.

Duo chuckled, the sound dark and sexy and he turned his attention back to the other man.

"Is this really torture?" Duo asked, still stroking Trowa's cock at that slow pace.

Relena continued to sit on his thigh, letting Trowa hold her in place and careful not to think too much about why _that_ felt so good.

"Yes," Trowa growled again.

"Then tell me what you want - what would make this less like torture and more like pleasure?"

Trowa was silent for a moment, licking his lips as he struggled to speak.

"Maybe you want me to go a little faster?" Duo suggested, altering the movement of his hand on Trowa's cock.

"Mhm. Yes."

"Maybe you want Relena to kiss you again?"

"Yes - No. I want you to kiss me."

Duo obligingly leaned down and brushed his lips over Trowa's and Relena knew exactly how it felt to be teased by Duo like that.

She watched Trowa lift his head, watching him struggle for more but Duo kept pulling back.

"Nuh-uh," Duo whispered against Trowa's mouth. "That's all you get until you come for me."

Trowa glared at Duo, but he let his head fall back onto the bed and he looked over at Relena for intervention.

"You're the one who chose him over me," she teased him. "But I'll still kiss you, if you ask very nicely."

Trowa closed his eyes and let out a long suffering sigh that turned into a moan when Duo twisted his wrist. Trowa's hips jerked upwards and his fingers clutched at Relena's hips again.

"Please," Trowa bit out.

Relena had to grin as she leaned over his taut body. She could feel his muscles tense in anticipation under her.

But instead of kissing his lips, Relena pressed a kiss to his throat and then his sternum before licking a trail to his nipples.

She kissed one before taking it into her mouth and biting down gently.

Trowa made a strangled sound and his hands tightened again as he thrust into Duo's hand erratically.

"Fuck!" He panted and then she felt his body relax under her, could hear and feel the hammering of his heartbeat and she felt something warm and sticky on her belly.

She looked up at his face, at the lack of a smirk and the glassy look in his eyes.

He had been handsome before - but seeing him so undone made him even more attractive.

She looked over at Duo, who was looking very pleased with himself.

A buzzer sounded, startling all of them.

"Laundry," Trowa breathed.

For a moment, none of them moved. But then Trowa let go of Relena and crawled out from between them.

She watched him walk across the room, completely naked at ease, to the laundry closet.

"That was pretty fucking amazing," Duo breathed, laying down and pulling Relena onto his chest.

She relaxed against him and hummed in agreement.

The sound of the dryer starting had her looking up.

"Your clothes are still damp," Trowa said as he came back to the bed. He looked down at them, a softness in his eyes that Relena would have thought of as affection if it was from someone she knew.

"Oh? Bummer. Here I was counting down the seconds until we had to leave," Duo said.

Trowa snorted a laugh and climbed back onto the bed. He kissed Relena on the lips before adjusting her body so that he could spoon against her back.

"You did say something about having plenty of condoms and lube," Relena reminded him.

"That I did," Trowa agreed, one hand gliding down her side and towards her hip. "It is getting late - were you two planning on still driving back tonight?"

"Are you inviting us to stay?" Duo asked.

Trowa shrugged and his hand dipped past Relena's hip and to her groin, fingers teasing at her pubic hair.

"I wouldn't mind," Trowa said neutrally.

"We aren't going to drop out of school and move down here even if the sex is amazing," Duo said.

Trowa snorted and pressed a kiss to Relena's shoulder.

"Good. There's not enough room for you three people in this house. Plus I bet the two of you take forever to get ready in the mornings."

Relena elbowed him in the ribs and he caught her arm and used it to roll her over.

He kissed her again, tongue sweeping deep into her mouth in a quick, almost possessive move.

She watched Trowa do the same to Duo, watched Duo look back at him with a slightly dazed expression that she knew mirrored her own.

"But I hope the sex is good enough that you consider coming back for a visit."

-o-

THE END

(no seriously. I absolutely refuse to make this longer.)


End file.
